This question stops a lot of people from switching banks or claiming a welcome bonus they are perfectly entitled to. The fear is reasonable but mostly misplaced. Deposit accounts and credit live in two different systems, and understanding why makes the whole thing obvious.
Why a bank account is not a credit event
Your credit report is a record of borrowing. It exists because you used a credit card, took a loan, or otherwise owed somebody money and were expected to pay it back. A chequing or savings account is the opposite arrangement: you give the bank your money and the bank holds it for you. There is no debt, no repayment, and no risk to a lender. So there is nothing to report, and no reason for the bureaus to hear about it at all.
That is the whole mechanism, and everything else follows from it:
- Your chequing accounts do not appear on your credit report. Not the balance, not how many you have, not how long you have had them.
- The number of bank accounts you hold does not affect your score. Having six chequing accounts is invisible to your credit file.
- Overdrawing a regular account is not a missed credit payment. You will be charged fees, and if a debt goes unpaid long enough it can be sent to collections, which does show up. But an overdraft on its own is not reported.
- Closing a bank account does not hurt your score, because it was never on the report to begin with.
Most institutions will still look at your credit file when you apply, which is what makes people nervous. That look is almost always a soft inquiry used to confirm you are who you claim to be. Soft inquiries do not impact your credit scores and are visible only to you. We explain the mechanics in our companion guide on hard versus soft credit checks.
The exceptions that actually trigger a hard check
Here is where the honest caveats live. The account itself is harmless. What people bolt on to it is not.
| What you apply for | Credit check | Affects your score |
|---|---|---|
| Chequing or savings account on its own | Usually a soft check for identity | No |
| Chequing account with overdraft protection | Normally a hard check | Yes, small and temporary |
| Chequing account bundled with a credit card | Hard check for the card | Yes, small and temporary |
| Account with a line of credit attached | Hard check | Yes, small and temporary |
| Prepaid or no credit check spending account | None | No |
If you are opening accounts for welcome bonuses
This is the reason most people search for this question, so let us answer it directly. Opening several chequing and savings accounts to claim welcome bonuses generally does not damage your credit score. The accounts are not credit, they are not reported, and the identity checks are soft. You can do this repeatedly without your score noticing.
Two real risks are worth naming honestly:
- Bank account churning is safe. Credit card churning is not the same thing. If your bonus hunting drifts into opening credit cards, each application is a hard inquiry. Equifax Canada specifically notes that the rate shopping allowance, which groups multiple inquiries for the same purpose into one, does not apply to credit cards. Five card applications are five inquiries. Five mortgage inquiries in a tight window can count as one. This asymmetry is the single most important thing for a bonus hunter to internalize.
- The overdraft checkbox scales with you. One account with accidental overdraft protection is one hard inquiry. If you open eight accounts and tick that box each time, you have manufactured eight hard inquiries for a feature you did not want.
Handle those two things and the credit score objection to bank bonus hunting basically evaporates. The real constraints are elsewhere: meeting the direct deposit and minimum balance requirements, and keeping track of what you owe at tax time. We cover both in how to meet bank bonus requirements and whether bank bonuses are taxable.
An account that does not check your credit at all
If you want to add an account without any inquiry landing on your file, a no credit check account is the clean option. KOHO opens with identity verification and no credit check, pays cashback on everyday spending and interest on your balance, and its optional credit building feature reports on time payments to Equifax without a credit check. It is not a bank and not a credit card, so check what it does before deciding it fits.
See a no credit check accountYour legal right to open an account, even with bad credit
Many people assume a bank can turn them away for a low score. In Canada that is not how it works, and the rules are clearer than most consumers realize.
The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada states plainly that you have the right to open a bank account at a bank, including federal credit unions and authorized foreign banks, and that you can open one even if you do not have a job, do not have money to put in the account right away, or have been bankrupt. The bank must be able to confirm your identity through proper identification, and that is the substantive hurdle.
Credit history is not on the list of reasons a bank may refuse you. Under the rules, a bank does not have to open an account for you only if:
- It has reasonable grounds to believe the account will be used for illegal or fraudulent purposes
- You have a history of illegal or fraudulent activity with financial service providers during the past seven years
- It believes you knowingly made false statements in the information you gave
- It believes you might cause physical harm to, harass, or abuse other customers or its employees
- You do not have an account already and it only offers accounts that must be linked to an existing account with another bank
- You do not allow it to take steps to verify that the identification you presented is valid
- In the case of a federal credit union, you do not agree to become a member if it requests you to do so
One practical note on that fifth point: some online only institutions require you to already have an account at another financial institution before they will open one for you. That is a permitted reason to refuse, and it is why the very first account is sometimes best opened at a bank with branches.
Closing the account afterwards
Closing a chequing or savings account has no effect on your credit score for the same reason opening it had none: the account was never on your credit report. This is genuinely different from closing a credit card, where the change to your available credit and to the age of your accounts can move your score.
The things that actually go wrong when closing a deposit account are administrative, not credit related. Make sure no pre-authorized debits still point at it, make sure any direct deposit has been redirected, and leave it open until the transfer is fully settled so you do not bounce a payment. A bounced payment to a lender is a credit problem even though the bank account is not. Our guide on closing a bank account in Canada walks through the order of operations.
Get the free Bank Bonus Playbook
Every welcome bonus we track across Canadian banks and money apps, the order to claim them, and the timing, in one file. A simple way to turn opening accounts into real cash back in your pocket, without touching your credit file.
Frequently asked questions
Usually not. A deposit account is not credit, so there is nothing to report to the bureaus and no hard inquiry is needed to approve you. Most institutions check your file only to verify your identity, which is a soft inquiry and does not affect your score. The exception is when you add a credit product to the application, such as overdraft protection or a bundled credit card, which normally does trigger a hard check.
Opening chequing and savings accounts for welcome bonuses generally does not affect your credit score, because deposit accounts are not credit and are not reported to the bureaus. The risk comes from two things: adding overdraft protection to the application, and churning credit cards rather than bank accounts. Equifax Canada notes the rate shopping allowance that groups multiple inquiries does not apply to credit cards, so each card application counts separately.
Bad credit is not on the list of permitted reasons. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada states you have the right to open a bank account even if you do not have a job, do not have money to put in the account right away, or have been bankrupt. A bank may refuse only for specific reasons such as reasonable grounds to believe the account will be used for illegal or fraudulent purposes, a history of illegal or fraudulent activity with financial service providers in the past seven years, knowingly false statements, or refusing to let it verify your identification.
No. The number of chequing and savings accounts you hold does not appear on your credit report at all, so it cannot affect your score. This is different from credit accounts, where the number and age of accounts does matter.
No. Closing a chequing or savings account does not hurt your credit score, because the account was never on your credit report to begin with. This is different from closing a credit card, which can affect your score. Just make sure nothing is still being drawn from the account before you close it.
According to the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, if a bank refuses to open an account it must notify you with a written statement. It must also disclose its procedure for dealing with complaints, contact information for the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments, and the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada's mailing address, website, and telephone number.
Related guides
- Hard credit check vs soft credit check in Canada
- Canadian bank account bonuses: monthly tracker
- How to meet Canadian bank bonus requirements
- Are bank and credit card bonuses taxable in Canada?
- No credit check banking in Canada
Disclosure: Some links on this page are referral links, and Bremo may earn a commission if you open an account, at no cost to you. This does not change what we recommend. The rules on this page were verified on 16 July 2026 against the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada's guidance on opening a bank account and your right to open one, the account opening provisions of the Bank Act, and Equifax Canada's guidance on hard inquiries. Individual institutions set their own application processes and may check your credit differently, so confirm with the institution before you apply. This page is educational general information, not financial advice.